Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My LifeJames Blake's life was getting better every day. A rising tennis star and People magazine's Sexiest Male Athlete of 2002, he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of it. But all that ended in May 2004, when Blake fractured his neck in an on-court freak accident. As he recovered, his father—who had been the inspiration for his tennis career—lost his battle with stomach cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Blake was dealt a third blow when he contracted zoster, a rare virus that paralyzed half of his face and threatened to end his already jeopardized career. In Breaking Back, Blake provides a remarkable account of how he came back from this terrible heartbreak and self-doubt to become one of the top tennis players in the world. A story of strength, passion, courage, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and son, Breaking Back is a celebration of one extraordinary athlete's indomitable spirit and his inspiring ability to find hope in the bleakest of times. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 7
After struggling for my first two years, by the end of 2001, I had become the
seventy-third-best tennis player in the world according to the computer rankings,
and by the end of 2002, I had worked my way up to number twentyeight. It was
more ...
... while December 2002 had brought my confidence and my ranking to an all-
time high, by the end of the 2003 season, it was sinking like a stone. It had been
a difficult year, one in which I'd lost a number of matches I felt I could, and should,
...
Instead, I thought about my semifinal match, in which I found myself standing on a
Saturday night across the net from one of my mentors, Andre Agassi, who was
well into his legendary comeback and ranked number six in the world.
In addition, he was only one spot higher than I was in the rankings, number
twenty-four to my twenty-five. In other words, on paper, I was just as likely to win
the match as he was. What made that match even more frustrating was that I had
won ...
In other matches that year, I was simply blown away by my opponents,
sometimes by guys who ranked well below me that in hindsight I didn't take
seriously enough. One of the most suicidal things you can do in tennis is to
believe your ranking ...
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User Review - sugarhill203 - Overstock.comI found the book interesting and easy to read due to the content and good writting. Being a tennis fan I found the book to show the reasons the commentators use very positive words describing James Blake. James his mother and brother are always shown respect when referring to them. Read full review
Contents
| 1 | |
| 7 | |
It Could Be Worse | 35 |
Requiem for a Superman | 63 |
Five Minutes of Hitting | 115 |
Plan B | 147 |
If You Can Win One Set | 175 |
You Can Win Two 175 7 Fire It Up One Time Bam 203 8 Getting Better 241 Epilogue 257 Glossary | 265 |
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life |
| Author | James Blake |
| Publisher | Harper Collins, 2009 |
| ISBN | 0061739650, 9780061739651 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |